Archives for March 2024

As I shared last time, this spring I’m giving Cal Newport’s new book a look. It’s called Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout (emphases mine), and I’m finding it challenging and provocative in just the ways my mind and heart need at this point in the school year. I’d love to have […]

Dear colleague, In his new book Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, Georgetown professor Cal Newport argues that the working lives of knowledge workers are filled with pseudo-productivity. Pseudo-productivity, in Newport’s parlance, is a “mood” of busyness that equates visible activity with actual productive effort. In terms of us teachers, pseudo-productivity can […]

I’ve written before on what I do for students who have official accommodations that prohibit mandated public speaking. But what about those students who do not have such accommodations but still refuse to speak? Here’s how one reader posed the question: Hey Dave,I agree that your pop up debate format can be a magical tool. […]

“Does writing poetry make you brave? It’s a good question to ask. I think making anything is a brave thing to do. Not like fighting brave, obviously. But a kind that looks at a horrible situation and doesn’t crumble. Making anything assumes there’s a world worth making it for… [M]aking something is a hopeful thing […]

Dear colleague, Yesterday I was speaking with some teacher-author friends about what teachers need right now. I found it a disorienting question because when I think about what I need right now, I feel disappointed. What I need is pretty normal for this time of year: energy, invigoration, a renewed sense of zest for the […]